This information is furnished to help you and other unemployed workers to understand
the unemployment compensation programs administrated by the Virgin Islands Unemployment
Insurance Service and the Employment Security Agency of which it is a part.
This is also intended to inform you of your rights and responsibilities under
the Virgin Islands Unemployment Insurance Act and related unemployment compensation
laws. It explains the requirements and conditions you must meet in order to
qualify for unemployment benefits and also the conditions and circumstances
under which you may be disqualified or otherwise denied benefits.

WHAT
IS UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE?

Unemployment Insurance is designed to provide benefits to eligible persons
who are temporarily unemployed through no fault of their own. In all states
employers pay quarterly contributions to cover their workers against involuntary
unemployment. Most employers are required to pay contributions. Benefits are
funded by these contributions. The amount of benefits payable is intended to
cover non-deferrable expenses such as housing, food, clothing, and necessary
transportation. No deductions are made from the worker’s wages to finance
Unemployment Insurance Benefits. Eligibility for Unemployment Insurance Benefits
is based on wages earned not on family financial resources. Unemployment Insurance
is not Welfare, Social Security, Workman’s Compensation, or Disability
Assistance.

ELIGIBILITY
REQUIREMENTS

In order to be eligible for Unemployment Benefits, you must meet certain eligibility
conditions. You must be totally or partially unemployed. You are considered
totally unemployed any week in which you did not perform work and no wages were
paid to you. YOU MUST REPORT ALL OF YOUR WORK AND EARNINGS, INCLUDING
ANY SELF-EMPLOYMENT INCOME. You must report to the local office in
person to file a claim for Unemployment Benefits. You are required to register
for work at the Job Service office. You must participate in reemployment services
offered through the Job Service office when you are selected.

Failure to report/participate in any reemployment services, in which you are
required to participate, may result in the denial of benefits, unless you have
justifiable cause that you have completed such services or are attending similar
services. You must file a claim and meet these basic requirements:

1.) You must be able to perform full-time work which means that you must be
physically and mentally able to work each work each day of the week. Benefits
cannot be paid for any week during which you are unable to work. While claiming
benefits, you must indicate on your claim form whether there were any days which
you were not able to work due to illness, injury, or for any other reason.

2.) You must be available for full time work. It means you must be ready and
willing to accept suitable work while you are claiming unemployment benefits.
In general, work is suitable if it is within your training, capabilities and
experience. You must not place undue restrictions on accepting offered work,
such as limiting times and places for a job. Transportation and child care problems
are not acceptable excuses for not being available for certain jobs that are
otherwise suitable.

3.) You are required to actively seek full-time work on your own and keep a
list of employers you contact for jobs. You must not limit your search to part-time
work. If you are only partially employed, you must make a continuing effort
to find full time work. If work is not available in your regular occupation,
you are expected to look for work in other areas for which you are qualified.
The Job Service will make every effort to assist you in finding suitable work.

4.) You must be unemployed through no fault of your own. If your separation
from your last employer was for anything other than lack of work we will have
to conduct a fact-finding interview by secure information from you, your employer,
and any other relevant parties before we can determine your eligibility. No
payment can be made until we have issued a decision. If you are determined to
be responsible for being unemployed a disqualification may be imposed.

COVERED
EMPLOYMENT

Covered employment is work done for employers who are subject to the Virgin
Islands Unemployment Compensation Law. These employers pay into a fund established
to pay Unemployment Compensation Benefits. An employer may be covered for some
work performed in his employ, but not for other work. Some of the types of work
that are not covered include a student in the employ of the school at which
he is enrolled and regularly attending classes, by a patient in a hospital,
in the employ of a church, as a elected official and by an alien contract worker
imported into the Virgin Islands for harvesting purposes.

QUALIFYING
WAGES

You must have worked at least two calendar quarters of your Base Period, and
have sufficient wages. Under the present Law, you may qualify monetarily if
you were paid wages in covered employment of at least $858.00 in the calendar
quarter of your period in which your wages were the highest and your total base
period wages were at least one and a half times the wages paid in that highest
quarter.

Your Base Period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters
proceeding the date you filed your claim for unemployment benefits.

BASE
PERIOD ILLUSTRATION

DETERMINATION
BENEFIT ELIGIBILITY REPORT
(Monetary Determination)

Within one week after you filed your initial claim you will receive a Monetary
Determination regarding your eligibility. Only wages earned in “covered
employment” can be used to establish your benefit amount. The Determination
will contain the following information:

1.) The Weekly Benefit Amount.
2.) The Total Potential Benefits.
3.) The Benefit Year beginning date of your claim.
4.) The Benefit Year ending date of your claim.
5.) A list of Base Period employers for whom you worked.
6.) The quarterly wages from each employer
7.) Total Compensable Weeks

Review your Monetary Determination carefully. Check your mailing address and
Social Security number. Be sure all employers you worked for during the base
period are listed and all wages are listed in every quarter that you worked.
If you do not have sufficient wages for a valid claim your Eligibility Report
will show “Base Period wages less than minimum”. This means you
can not receive benefits at this time and may file a new claim next quarter.

If you should disagree with any information on your Eligibility Report or if
wages are missing you should notify the local office and request a redetermination
within ten (10) days from the date of delivery. In order for a redetermination
to be processed you will be required to provide evidence of earned wages, such
as pay stubs or W-2 tax forms.

Your wages from employment in other states may be combined to increase your
Weekly Benefit Amount.

If you qualify for benefits, you will be assigned a benefit year, that is the
one-year period beginning with the Sunday of the week in which you filed your
initial claim for benefits.

NOTE: Being monetarily eligible does not automatically
entitle you to receive Unemployment Insurance Benefits. Separate decisions are
made to determine your entitlement.

WEEKLY
BENEFIT AMOUNT (WBA)

Your Weekly Benefit Amount is based on the amount that you were paid by all
employers for whom you worked during your base period.

The weekly benefit amount payable for a qualified unemployed individual will
be one twenty-sixth (1/26) of your wages earned in the quarter of base period
that was the highest. For example, if an individual earned $3,000.00 during
his base period and the highest amount he earned in a single calendar quarter
(his high quarter) was $1,300.00 his weekly benefit amount would be $50.00 average
weekly wage in the Virgin Islands. If the individual remains unemployed and
is not disqualified, he can possible receive a total amount of benefits equal
to 26 times his weekly benefit amount or one-third (1/3) of his total base period
wages, whichever is less. In the example given, 26 times (26 x $50 = $1,300)
and one-third of $3,000 would be $1,000 (3,000 ÷ 3 = 1,000). The maximum
potential benefits would be 1,000. If the individual were paid $50.00 a week
in benefits, he would exhaust his entitlement in 20 weeks.

Your Weekly Benefit Amount (WBA) cannot exceed the Virgin Islands maximum weekly
benefit amount or be less the Virgin Islands minimum WBA. The maximum and minimum
change yearly, and are based upon the previous year’s average annual weekly
wage for the Virgin Islands.The 2006 Maximum Weekly Benefit Amount is $454.00.
The Minimum Weekly Benefit Amount is $33.00.

MAXIMUM
BENEFIT AMOUNT (MBA)

The MBA is the total amount of Unemployment Benefits you can potentially draw
in a benefit year. It is determine by the Weekly Benefit Amount (WBA) and the
number of weeks to be paid. The WBA times the number of weeks equals the MBA.

BENEFIT
YEAR

Once you qualify for benefits you establish a benefit year (52 week) beginning
with the Sunday of the first week in which you filed your claim. This does not
mean you can collect Unemployment Insurance Benefits for one year if you remain
unemployed. This is the time frame you can collect the total potential benefits.
Your Unemployment Insurance Benefits may exhaust before the 52 week (Benefit
Year) expires.

REQUALIFYING
FOR A SUBSEQUENT BENEFIT YEAR

After your benefit year has expired, you may be eligible to establish a new
benefit year, if you have been employed and have earned subsequent to the beginning
of the first benefit year an amount equal to not less than 3/13 of your high
quarter wages or six times your weekly benefit amount, whichever is less. The
monetary requirements must also be met regarding qualifying wages.

BENEFIT
RIGHTS INTERVIEW (BRI)

Each person who files a claim for Unemployment Benefits regardless of the type
of claim will receive a verbal orientation. During this interview information
about your benefit rights and responsibilities will be explained, as well as,
information about the Monetary Determination (Benefit Eligibility Report) the
Non-Monetary Determination your appeal rights and the eligibility requirements
you must meet to establish a valid claim.

You will sign and date a BRI statement which will be placed in your folder.
This statement will acknowledge that you have been informed and understand your
benefit rights and responsibilities as explained to you.

WAITING
PERIOD

The first week for which you are eligible and meet the requirements for benefits
is referred to as your waiting week. No benefits are paid for this week. If
you have earnings during the first week of your claim that exceed your weekly
benefit amount, this unpaid time extends into the next week. To obtain waiting
week credit, you must be eligible for benefits. If the waiting week is included
in a disqualification period the first eligible week claimed at the end of the
disqualification period must be used to meet the waiting period requirements.
You serve one waiting week for each Benefit Year.

ELIGIBILITY
REVIEW INTERVIEW (ERI)

You will be schedule for an Eligibility Review Interview when you claim your
first payable week. You will be given the date and time for your first Eligibility
Review Interview and a Work Search Log to record your job contacts. It is your
responsibility to keep a daily record of the employers you contact in search
of work. You should record your job contacts as they happen. To remain eligible
for Unemployment Benefits, you must make an active search for work during each
week. If you are receiving partial benefits, you must continue to look for permanent
full-time work in order to continue receiving benefits. While there is no specific
number of contacts you must make each week, you are expected to do what a reasonably
prudent person would do in order to return to work. At the interview you will
be required to provide the Agency with a record of your work search efforts.
Your eligibility to continue receiving unemployment benefits will be reviewed.
You will be referred to Job Service to assist with Job Search techniques and
other employability services.

Failure to seek work and/or provide an accurate record of your work search
efforts, and/or failure to report when schedule may result in you being disqualified
from receiving benefits.

WORKERS PROFILING AND REEMPLOYMENT SERVICE PROGRAM

The Virgin Islands Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services program identifies
and select dislocated workers who are most likely to exhaust their unemployment
benefits and refer them early in their claim series to reemployment services.
The Job Service staff will work with you to establish a reemployment plan that
meets your individual needs.

If you are selected you will be issued a Notice of Selection for Reemployment
Services, which will include the date and time of the schedule orientation.
Failure to report or participate without good cause may result in denial or
delay of your Unemployment Insurance Benefits.

CHILD
SUPPORT DEDUCTION

The Unemployment Insurance Office is required to withhold money from your Unemployment
Insurance Benefits if an order from the child support enforcement agency is
received. The amount to be deducted will be determined by a court order or the
child enforcement agency. If you disagree with the amount deducted from your
benefits you should contact the child support agency. Only the Child Support
Agency can change or stop the deduction from your benefits.

BENEFITS
ARE TAXABLE

Unemployment Benefits are taxable income and must be reported on your Federal
Income Tax Return. You have the option of having 10% of your gross weekly benefit
amount deducted for Federal Income Tax purposes. You may change your decision
at any time during your claims by completing a form to Terminate Taxes withheld
from your Unemployment Insurance Benefits.

We will send you a Form 1099-G showing the total amount of benefits paid and
federal taxes deducted from your Unemployment Benefits during the previous calendar
year (January 1 to December 31). The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will also
receive this information. If you have any questions regarding taxation of benefits,
you must contact the Internal Revenue Services.

PARTIAL
BENEFITS

If you work less than 40 hours a week you might be eligible for partial benefits.
However, you must still be able, available, and actively seeking full-time work,
you cannot restrict yourself to part-time work and be eligible for benefits.

You are ineligible for benefits any week that you work full-time, even if you
have low earnings.

Any deductions from your weekly benefit because of earnings remains in your
benefit account, and may extend the number of weeks you can be paid during your
benefit year.

You will be required to submit your check stubs from your part-time employment
for each week you claim.

You will be given a part-time form to take to your employer for completion.

CHANGING
YOUR ADDRESS OR MOVING

If you move or change your mailing address while you are unemployed you should
notify the local office immediately. Even if you stopped claiming benefits you
should inform the agency of your new address so that you will receive the 1099-G
statement for Income tax purposes.

If you are leaving the Virgin Islands area and you are unable to report to
your local office before leaving, report to the nearest local office in your
area. Always take any forms concerning your claim when you report to a different
office, so that your benefits will not be delayed.

BACK
PAY AWARD

Back pay received from a former employer must be reported to the office. Back
Pay is usually awarded because the employer separated or discharged the individual
wrongfully. The amount paid is intended to correct that wrong and is treated
as wages even if the individual performed no work during the period covered.
As a result, the individual is not unemployed with respect to the week or weeks
covered by the award. Any benefits previously paid become, therefore overpaid.
Any benefits received for that period must be repaid. Employers in the Virgin
Islands are required to report back pay awards to the Unemployment Office and
deduct any Unemployment Compensation that was paid for the same period. The
employer sends the deducted amount to the Unemployment Office to cancel the
overpayment.